NAVAL POLICY.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 191, 13 August 1919, Page 6

NAVAL POLICY.

It Ls satisfactory to have Mr. Massey's denial of the "Daily Express" report that New Zealand is in negotia/ion with the Admiralty about the formation of a squadron on the New Zealand coast; for nothing should be done until the Government gets Lord Jellicoe's report. We may point out, however, that Mr. Massey's denial is not an answer to the comments we made the other day on the gift of the cruiser Canterbury to NewZealand. Mr. Massey is not negotiating—though he did talk the question over in Paris with the heads of the Admiralty—but he has done something more concrete, he has accepted a modern vessel which will be expensive to maintain, and will be of little use by herself. And he has done this without asking the sanction of, or even consulting Parliament. It may be said, of course, that Parliament was not sitting, that there is nothing to prevent us declining the gift, and that whatever happens Lord Jellicoe's report will hold the field. Perhaps so, but decisions like the Prime Minister's in respect to this cruiser have a way of influencing policy and being perpetuated in it, and wo must say we do not like either the method or the matter of this introduction of the thin end of the wedge of an expensive local navy. We hope Lord Jellicoe's report will be available for discussion by Parliament during the coming session. In the meantime it will do members of Parliament and the public no harm to reflect on the naval and financial drawbacks to a policy in which the acceptance of the cruiser may involve us.